We have all wanted one day or another to park the car and move on to the bicycle, not only for the mandatory Sunday ride, but for everyday journeys such as going to work or shopping.
The truth is that the ride, as the name says, is fine for a short route, but when the routes are long or steep and the cyclist is not very trained, you have to consider going to the next level: buying an electric one.
The terrible thing about the case is that, to this day, electric in the cycling world is synonymous with expensive.
The
start-up
Teebike is changing this part of history.
In 2019, VAEs (electrically assisted bikes) broke a sales record: 390,000 units in France out of a total of 2.7 million.
It is about 45% of the market with an average price of 1,700 euros.
And the trend is upward.
Despite the prices, French manufacturers estimate to sell a million units in 2024. The truth is that this electric vehicle has become a real alternative to the car, especially since the French State has promoted it without hesitation.
From the outset, it was allowed, from the summer of 2020, to create cycle tracks anywhere.
Although initially temporary, in practice, they are here to stay.
In addition, the Government created aid to companies to promote the bike among their employees.
The town councils also offered economic subsidies so that their inhabitants could access them.
All this economic boom has generated new local
start-ups
that are looking for their business margin.
Angell Bike is the most popular of the bunch.
Its creator, Marc Simoncini, wanted to make his invention, in his own words, what the iPhone represents for telephony.
They are also sold in Spain for 2,860 euros.
The company Le Velo Mad (crazy bike) bets on electric bikes with a retro air.
the
cheapest
of its catalog costs 1,849 euros.
Heritage Bike, on the other hand, is a small company that produces high-end, moto-like electric bikes.
The cheapest costs 3,500 euros.
In the heat of the heyday, a start-up
has emerged
that allows access to the electric bicycle in a much more affordable and responsible way. This is Teebike. The genesis of the French invention is to be sought in China. It is there that Laurent Durrieu, co-founder, discovers a "bicycle graveyard": an open-air landfill where some 25 million units sleep, all abandoned and with no hope of returning to useful life. To his surprise, Durrieu discovered that this cemetery without bones, but with a lot of aluminum, was not a unique case but rather a common practice in many parts of the planet. He then decided to find a solution to give a second life to so many discarded but still useful vehicles. In France alone, it is estimated that a million of them are abandoned each year.
Teebike is a wheel equipped with an electric motor and that can be installed on any bicycle, turning it by
birlibirloque
into an electric one. It is designed above all for urbanites who would like to be able to go to work on their saddle. In France, the average distance between home and workplace is five kilometers. The start-up also has the vocation to come to the aid of mothers who would like to go for a walk with one or two children loaded on the bike; and to be a help also for older people who would like to go further, but the tiredness of pedaling can. As Laurent Durrieu says, “it makes the earth flat”.
The company was created in October 2019 after six months of research that aimed to find an economical, simple, easy-to-implement solution that did not involve an annoying installation because that would put potential users off, and without cables. No need to connect to power.
This is how the electric and connected wheel was born, equipped with a 250-watt motor and a state-of-the-art battery.
It connects via Bluetooth to a mobile application with the same name and allows the levels of assistance to the cyclist to be modulated, from 20% to 99%, to manage the level of effort.
In France alone, it is estimated that one million bikes are abandoned each year.
Once installed and connected, the wheel has a range of up to 80 kilometers and can travel at a maximum speed of 25 kilometers per hour, which is the maximum speed allowed for this class of vehicle in France. It has a stop system that serves to deactivate the engine and function simply as a classic. It also has a thrust system to give greater help to the electric motor when facing, for example, a slope. It takes four hours to fully charge and, with the purchase, you also get the electric charger, a lock, a mobile phone holder and the key needed for installation. The company offers a two-year warranty.
From an economic point of view, your proposal is interesting. This wheel is much less expensive than an electric bicycle that offered the same benefits. The complete vehicle is around 2,000 euros on average, while the complement, separately, costs 795 euros and can be purchased in three or four installments. It is also possible to finance it for months from 26.9 euros per month. At the moment they are available through their website in France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Portugal. I trust that they will not take long to shoot soon also in Spain.
Last Christmas, Teebike organized two bicycle repair workshops together with the Apprentis d'Auteuil Foundation, in Clermont-Ferrand.
They took advantage of the courses to train people at risk of social exclusion in the mechanic trade.
As a result, they managed to repair 500 vehicles from the Clermont-Ferrand public fleet in addition to avoiding 20 kilos of scrap per unit, that is, 10 tons in total.
And, to top it all off, nine jobs were generated.
The repaired ones, all equipped with a Teebike wheel, were put up for sale for 800 euros.
Sustainable, responsible, ecological gift… In two words: “almost perfect”.